Friday, November 25, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Privatisation in India
Posted by BionicScribe at 12:16 AM 0 comments
Friday, October 21, 2011
Engineering highways to hell
The erstwhile PM Vajpayee’s dream Golden Quadrilateral project, that now connects most of India’s metros, kept this hope alive.
Turbhe - Airoli Highway
But now whenever I use the relatively new Turbhe to Airoli highway I wonder what the architects and engineers of this project were thinking when they designed this road. When I first came across this route, I was quite delighted with the idea of a road that would allow me the joy of effortless, pothole free and smooth drive for at least 15 Kms.
When the roadwork finally was completed, and I got the opportunity to use the road I was thoroughly disappointed. It is pothole free. It had better be, considering most sections are less than a year old. But effortless and smooth, definitely a big NO! Even if they had just copied the Palm Beach Road, things would have been 10 times better. We don’t even need to sit and break our head over new technology and design.
Learn to Copy
The developed nations and even our neighbor China have already spent millions developing this technology. It is available to us on a platter. Why can’t we just copy the damn technology? Our musicians and cinema makers have been doing that for decades despite copyright issues. There is no IP on road technology as far as I know. The UK government offers a 15 volume Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. If it is anywhere similar to the UK government's ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) manual that offers best-practices for IT service management then it can be accepted as a global standard and leveraged by us.
At the very least, our designers need to understand that building a road is not just about clearing a straight path and pouring tar or concrete. Width, alignment, traffic flow, junctions, traffic volume are all aspects that need to be considered before even laying the groundwork.
An article I read many years back provides a classic example of how inept we are in this matter. Can’t remember the details but the gist was that earlier India used to build roads in Nepal and now the Nepalese have recruited China as well. According to that article, (btw, an Indian wrote the article so it is not Chinese propaganda) the possibility of meeting with an accident on the roads constructed by India was much higher as compared to the Chinese ones.
Reason? In a mountainous country like Nepal, the roads tend to be tortuous. The Chinese built roads with sweeping curves and longer sight distances that made driving on these roads effortless and safer. Anyone who has been to China will vouch for the quality of their roads.
On the other hand, our roads are famous for its tight corners and lack of visibility into what lies ahead. We don’t have to go as far as Nepal to experience this. Metropolitan Mumbai itself is a good example. In our own cities, the danger this poses is compounded by the lack of driver discipline. It’s a ripple effect. The indiscipline of a few combined with bad roads aggravate the drivers who try to abide by the rules. This then leads to them engaging in road rage, which then provokes the other drivers, and soon you sense impending doom.
The Turbhe Airoli road is a classic case in point. Bad design, numerous painful speed-breakers, undisciplined novice drivers, countless mini junctions along the way where somebody from the opposite direction might suddenly decide to make a u-turn, lack of visibility, all adds up to multiple drivers itching to murder someone. Since the road is new, we can still take corrective actions. But we being what we are I very much doubt that.
Posted by BionicScribe at 2:55 AM 0 comments
Monday, May 17, 2010
Developing one’s personality
A man once asked Nietzsche, “How can one develop one’s personality?” And Nietzsche replied, “By living dangerously.”
I read this anecdote many years back and instantly fell in love with it. At that point I truly believed I was living dangerously. And what could be better than developing one’s personality while at it! We (my friends and I) had gone on several treacherous treks and come close to meeting our maker earlier than intended more than once. We used to race our Enfields at 100+kph for several kms at a stretch on India’s famously unpredictable roads where a holy cow or the ubiquitous pothole could accelerate your trip down the highway to hell. We would venture deep into forests supposedly infested with cheetahs and wild boars, and spend the night in the open, bragging of meeting the wild ones head-on, while being on the verge of peeing in our pants at the slightest rustling of leaves.
While we continued in our delusions, here was a famous philosopher telling me I might actually be developing my personality in the bargain. Now, all these years later, I feel Nietzsche might have been right after all. I really don’t know whether engaging in adrenaline inducing activities will contribute to developing my personality or not. And I don’t think that’s what Nietzsche probably had in mind when he made that statement. So how can a regular guy leading a regular life mature into a person he can be proud of?
Well, in retrospect, the few times I have felt good about myself as a person have been those moments when I stuck to a decision I thought was right, or supported a person I felt was in the right, in spite of the possibility of antagonizing almost everyone in my group, whose approval or validation I did care about at that point in time. During our growing up years, and even during adulthood, acceptance by the society at large or by our peer group is important to most of us. In some ways they define who we are – they influence our tastes, the activities we engage in for entertainment, our general attitude towards life, etc etc. So going against the stand they want you to take could result in being ostracized, i.e. social death. This, I now feel, is what true dangerous living is all about.
Nevertheless, the few times I took such a stance, I would feel a positive development within me. I would experience an ecstatic sense of freedom, of light seeping into my soul, a blemish from my soul being burnt away with fine-cutting laser beams, and my spirit being rewired to emit the new positive energy.
It’s easy to follow the crowd. Nothing wrong with that either. But when you suppress your instinct for what is right, when you don’t stand up for someone you know is speaking the truth, when you choose the easy way out as you don’t want to incur the collective wrath of the “group”, or even worse, when you join or even take the lead in demolishing the character or kindheartedness of a fellow human being for the sole purpose of gaining the approval of the “group” then you have caused irreparable damage to your psyche. You did it to belong, to feel good! But do you really feel great?
Away from the crowd, when you are back to being on your own, why does the bile rise to your throat? Why do you feel so worthless? Just like a puff of the cigarette that gives you a high for a few minutes but weakens you mentally and physically all the days of your addiction, in the same way, your need to be in the limelight for those two minutes has depraved your soul.
Accept the risk; stand for the truth, live dangerously! And grow as a person. The eternal future of your soul demands it of you. Your creator demands it of you. It’s easy to succumb to the easy life. But then who ever said it was supposed to be easy. That’s why it’s called living dangerously!
Posted by BionicScribe at 3:04 AM 0 comments
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Terror in Mumbai
Heads have begun rolling following the Congress Working Committee meeting over the weekend. Shivraj Patil has quit – the first political fallout of the Mumbai terror attacks. And here in Maharashtra R.R. Patil has followed suit – following the dictates of his conscience it seems! I can’t figure out how a dumb idiot like him ever managed to make it to the post of State Home Minister. Would anyone with even an iota of sense make a comment like the one he made last week? Must have been inspired by Shahrukh Khan’s “Bade Bade Deshonmei aisi chotti chotti battein hothi rahathi hai” dialogue in some masala movie some years back. Dumb! Or maybe he is a palpable reflection of the mental faculties of our cabinet ministers. God Forbid!
Well to come back to the point, is quitting or asking the person in charge of a ministry portfolio to move out the way to right wrongs?
What struck me as funny was the fact that when a leader mentioned the words "the Navy's responsibility" defence minister A K Antony immediately offered to quit. When the wisdom of sharing intelligence with the ISI was questioned the foreign minister offered his resignation. Even the PM and the external affairs ministry offered their resignations. All these jokers must have known that the resignations are not likely to be accepted. Secondly, with just some months left for the next general election how much do they stand to lose by resigning now. If they stay in power the media would probably continue talking about their inefficiencies and thus stymie any chances they may have in winning next time round. But by moving out at this stage they can get out of the limelight and salvage the situation. The public memory as they say is after all quite short.
For the party in power it serves as an exercise to minimize the political damage. Just chop a few heads and convey the impression of stringent action being taken. And even here they didn’t have the guts to just ask the home minister to quit outright but had to actually bring it about in a very roundabout manner.
Shouldn’t these guys be forced to make up for their lapses? Shouldn’t they be held accountable? How does this quitting business help anyone? The new minister will probably spend a few months just trying to figure out operational issues before he can get acting. While the guy who should actually be bearing the brunt gets away scot free. I mean you mess up things and then at the last minute when the shit actually hits the ceiling you just move out of the room leaving others to clean up after you. Who wouldn’t mind a job like that! Be a minister for 5 years, enjoy all the perks and not deliver anything. Forget delivering, you actually screw up and get away with it.
These guys should definitely be stripped of their posts but also forced to deliver, clean up the mess. Even if it means putting them on the street. Make them accountable for every single resource under their control during their days in power. And the public should make sure these guys don’t get a single except probably their own during the next election. And if the party high command has any sense they should make sure these guys don’t even get a ticket to contest the elections next time round.
Posted by BionicScribe at 10:22 PM 1 comments
Labels: cabinet, home minister, Mumbai, oberoi, taj, terror attacks
Monday, November 17, 2008
Last Man Standing
Last Sunday morning, at church the pastor made an observation that took me back in time to my college days. Ah the good old days!
Well, not to digress, each August, our college hosts Malhar, an intercollegiate youth fest that is supposed to be a platform for highly talented college students to display their painting or sculpting or eating or other such sundry skills. But the major chunk of the jantha come for the rock shows and music concerts and other such stuff that Malhar is commonly associated with. Malhar hosts (or at least used to host) two personality contests. The main one is the Mr. and Miss Malhar contest which grills the poor sods who participate on various aspects of their (underdeveloped) personality. The other one, which is less complicated and usually more fun (for the audience that is) is basically about quick repartees and cheek. Try as I might, I can’t remember the name of this contest. Old age catching up maybe!
Anyways, that particular year, a visually impaired candidate from Ruia College participated in this contest. I had seen him shine in some other college festivals the previous year and so had a feeling he might just beat all the other hotshot candidates to the prize, which included, I think, a date with Maria Gorretti (Who Maria? Well, we are talking ancient history here, so do your own research). For the Misses’ there was Arbazz Khan (ya I know it was supposed to be a prize. But then I guess a prize is a prize only in the mind of the giver). Well at the end of the day there were three or four male finalists on stage. The one who came up with the cheekiest response to a question posed by Maria would win the crown.
The Question, “If you were the last man on earth and I the last woman, what would you say to win my heart?” The other candidates gave the usual clichés. I can’t recollect any except that they were all quite ho-hum. So won’t attempt repeating them. Then it was the turn of the visually impaired candidate. And his answer left no scope for any of the others. A true classic that will forever resound in my mind, “Maria, the future of the whole world depends on you.”
Posted by BionicScribe at 8:18 PM 1 comments
Labels: Malhar, Personality Contest, Xaviers College, Youth Fest
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thunderbird: Down Memory Lane
I just saw an ad promoting Royal Enfield’s new Thunderbird Twinspark. The tagline – Leave Home — took me back to the time I first left home. Ironically, I bought my own Tbird within a few months of this transition. This reminded me of an entry I had made in RE’s networking section called ParkingSpace. Since it’s not going to get any eyeballs there I decided to ferret it out of the RE archives and post it here as a first step towards becoming an active blogger again. Hopefully!
After almost four years of planning and dreaming and reaching levels of absolute madness and frustration I finally became the proud owner of my TBird on Dec 31, 2004.
I had been obsessed with the Bullet since my college days. But then I saw the American classic Easy Rider and realized I actually wanted a thumper cum Cruiser that could handle the highways and off-road locations of India. The Western world had its Harley’s and Triumphs and BSAs. But the combination I was looking for was still a dream in India. Sometime around 2000 I heard about REs plans to launch a cruiser. So I decided to be patient and wait.
The months rolled by but there was no action on this front. Many a times my patience almost ran out and I thought of getting hold of a second hand bullet and modifying it to my likings. Well there was a big hindrance in the form of my parents. And another even bigger one in the form of cash flow. So I convinced myself I didn't quite like the idea of riding a modified bike. And the wait continued.
Then RE introduced the TBird and I knew that very moment this was it. I wanted an Indian thumper cum cruiser. And before my eyes my dream machine was taking shape. However, convincing my folks was an impossibility. The other option was to collect the moolah myself. But going by the measly salary I drew in those days that plan was equivalent to robbing the Mint.
But in Jan 2004 I took a resolution. I will have my Thunderbird before the year ends come what may. But soon it was December and I thought here goes another resolution for a toss. I was ready to kill, shoot, pillage. My brain was doing somersaults morning thru night thru morning, day in day out. I had this huge poster of a Tbird on my soft board. The first thing I did every morning was look at it. Through the day, wallpapers and screensavers of the Bird flashed on my PC. The RE website had become my daily bread.
I finally decided to give up and convince my folks to pitch in. But that was an impossibility especially seeing that I had crashed my existing 100 cc quietly badly the previous year. And not once but twice. The second landed me in bed for more than a week.
So a guy who can't handle a 100 cc how can anyone ever expect him to stay alive and in one piece on a 350 cc! But then a miracle did happen. A company I used to work for earlier had a provident fund system and in the third week of Dec they credited my account quite unexpectedly and send me a mail. Ah 42 beautiful ks!
I immediately ran to the RE dealer from whom I had fleeced zillion test rides of all the models that used to hit his showroom. But then he didn't have one in Black. I almost compromised and took a Red one home. But then sanity prevailed. After all a miracle had already taken place. Now it's just a matter of waiting for a few more days.
I began haranguing the dealer every single day. At least 3-4 times a day. It was 31st and I had given up hope. I thought OK so what I'll begin the new year with a thump. The sudden windfall had restored my sanity to some extent.
But then around lunch time I get a call. Your Bird is here. Off I ran. With dad and bro in tow. Bro because he was as excited. Dad cos he was also excited but he was on express orders from my mom to prevent this disaster from taking place. heh heh
But Dad actually welcomed the new member into the family with a warm prayer. Now the best part. No money in my pocket to buy fuel. Ah!
This time however Dad relented and after stopping in the middle of the road umpteen times and struggling to figure out the kick system I finally brought my bride home.
The very next day we left on our honeymoon. Wandering, wandering we reached the foothills of Matheran. But now that's another story.
Posted by BionicScribe at 3:43 AM 7 comments
Labels: Bullet, Cruiser, Matheran, Royal Enfield, Thunderbird